Beer Belly: Causes, Symptoms and How Do You Get Rid of It?

Beer Belly is a specific term used to define abdominal obesity. It occurs due to accumulation of visceral fat that is stored around your internal organs. Stored fat within your abdominal cavity is known as visceral fat. It tends to accumulate in your arteries leading to occurrence of cardiovascular disease. 

According to studies, beer belly or abdominal fat is the main cause of changes in heart structure contributing to disturbance in heart function. But the most surprising and shocking finding is that these effects are more apparent among males. 

As the term beer belly shows that the condition may occur due to consumption of beer, people link it with the use of alcohol. Studies also suggest that decreasing bear consumption along with other lifestyle and diet changes can help you lose excess weight.

Is it Easy to Get Rid of Beer Belly?

As beer belly results after having fun times, tasty dishes and good food, with a lot of alcohol consumption. Getting rid of beer belly needs some changes in your diet and physical activity. Excessive abdominal fat makes it harder for you to move around easily or fit into your favorite clothes. The excess weight also causes many problems like extra straining on your heart and joints and sapping your energy. 

Different theories help you to find out the best ways to get rid of the excess abdominal fat. For example you can try targeted fat loss, especially around midsections but it will not work in reality. Secondly, some exercise crunches may help firm up your muscles but the mixed research findings make it difficult to choose the best one according to your body structure and weight. 

So, the one and only most effective method to shrink your beer belly is to burn more calories than you consume. This tip will help you lose weight in simple terms. Experts also said that a beer belly is associated with more cardiac remodeling patterns than a high body mass index alone. This means it works as a high waist-to-hip ratio. 

Keep on reading to learn more about causes and ways to get rid of beer belly through simple strategies.

Causes of Bear Belly Formation

Excessive and unchecked alcohol consumption, especially in men, is highly associated with the formation of bear belly that is clinically known as “abdominal obesity” or “abdominal fat”.

According to a 2023 study, high alcohol intake causes increase in waist circumference because alcohol contains a large number of calories. But surprisingly, another study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggested that excessive alcohol drinking causes widening in your waist, belly is not a final destination for accumulating beer-related fat or calories. Thus, the popular belief that beer tends to go straight to your belly, is not true. The research shows that the high calories of beer actually contribute to increased weight throughout the body, not in the abdomen specifically. It also increases your waistline. 

Stooges suggest that not only beer but the things you eat with beer also contribute to weight gain. For example,you need to think about what you eat while drinking beer. People often like to have a combination of high calorie food like nachos or pizza with a large mug of beer. This means beer alone can’t increase your weight but the food you’re enjoying with it contributes a lot in this matter. One more interesting fact is that drinking excess alcohol directly affects your body’s ability to burn extra fat and calories. The most of the energy of the body is used to break down the alcohol coming in your stomach and a very less amount of energy reaches to the stored fat that is waiting to be burned. 

Moreover, heavy alcohol intake also affects the testosteron levels which is another cause of accumulation of weight gain in the abdominal cavity.

Ways to Get Rid of Beer Belly

There are many easy methods through which you can reduce the beer belly. These tips may help you burn the excess calories so that the circumference of the waistline can be controlled.

Dietary Changes to Help

Some simple dietary changes can contribute to cutting excess fat around your waist and belly. The first and foremost step is to cut back on your beer consumption.

More tips to bring changes into your dairy include:

Cut Your Protein Size in Half

This can be understood with an example that having just one slice of pizza instead of two can help cut down the protein portion in your diet. Practicing such steps on a daily basis can help to consume smaller portions as the days and weeks go on. The most important point to keep in mind while practicing cutting down the prior  portion is that whenever you visit a restaurant, keep an eye on your portion size because the serving sizes there are often much larger than standard serving sizes. If you’re eating a lot, you must be careful while taking meals along with beer.

Calorie Counting

You need to learn how many calories are in the food you usually eat because once you learn to count calories you’re taking in through your diet, you would learn to reduce them according to your requirements. According to experts’ advice, you can lose one pound weight per week if you burn 2000 calories daily. This number of burning calories is valid for women while in men the average limit to burn calories daily is within 2000 to 2500 calories. However, the estimate mentioned here can vary greatly from person to person because the age, sex, weight, height, general health condition and activity level affect your calorie intake and calorie burning. 

Keeping in mind that eating more wholegrain, lean proteins, fruits, and vegetables and eating less foods with added sugars, saturated fats, processed foods and enriched flours can help reduce your calorie intake and enhance the rate of calorie burning per day.

Make Healthy Food Swaps

Avoid junk or processed foods. For example replacing desserts or ice creams with strawberries, drinking lime or simple water instead of soda, using olive oil or healthy fats in place of butter for cooking, following a workout routine that works for you according to your needs, and increasing your physical activity level are the key factors that play crucial role in your weight loss efforts.

Top Physical Efforts to Get Rid of Beer Belly

Incorporating certain exercises and workout efforts to your routine, is another way to reduce your waistline and burn abdominal fat. 

Some important ways to reduce abdominal obesity include:

Try High Intensity Intermittent Exercise (HIIE)

The specific exercises containing all-out efforts in rapid sets of sprints or other exercises that are performed with brief sets of intense workouts are known as HIIE. During this type of high intensity excuses and after it following some short and light exercises can help you burn more calories at a time. 

According to an article published in the Journal of Health and Obesity, HIIE is the most effective way to accelerate weight loss with burning fats than any other forms of exercise.

Exercise More Often than Not

If you don’t find much time to perform sternum exercises due to hectic routine, try to spare just 30 minutes to do moderate-intensity aerobic exercise five days a week. In addition, performing strength training and stretching in the morning and evening only two days a week can also support your workout routine. Performing these exercises can help burn excess calories and make it easy to get rid of beer belly within a few days.

Sneak in Exercise

Some lifestyle changes may also help in burning calories at a high rate. For example, taking frequent breaks at work or taking short walks or using stairs instead of elevators are the simple acts that help you burn more calories naturally. 

Tips for Preventing Belly Fat

Visceral fat accumulation is associated with cardiovascular issues, this is a well known fact . but this is not enough tow because studies has declared that the fat stored around your waistline and in abdominal cavity also contribute to development of several diseases like:

• Brain Strokes.
• Type 2 diabetes.
• Alzheimer’s disease.
• Nervous disorders.
• Certain cancers especially breast and colorectal cancer.

No doubt, targeting just abdominal obesity is difficult but there are still some ways to to lose weight and lower the risk of diseases.

Studies suggest that practicing abdominal workout is not enough to cause weight loss in your abdominal region. You can lose weight throughout your body by implementing simple changes in your exercise and diet. In some cases, surgery can help reduce abdominal fat.

Research emphasized that nutrition quality is the most effective factor for beer belly. Giving importance to your nutritional needs and resistance training can help get rid of beer belly.

According to experts, doing strength training exercises 2 to 3 times per week, with an addition of 30 minutes of walk daily, increasing protein intake, and reducing intake of refined carbohydrates are some consistent lifestyle changes that have significant impact on your waist size and abdominal obesity. These practices promise to ensure a long-term healthy life.

How Long Will it Take to Go Away?

Beer belly elimination depends on many factors like the diet you intake daily, lifestyle choices to lose the weight, the amount of weight you want to lose and your commitment to exercise. You can understand it with some examples:

According to biological studies, one pound is equal to 3500 calories. When you try to lose 500 calories per day, you will lose 1 pound a week. This means if you don’t succeed in losing 1 pound per week, try some other combinations to achieve your goal.

Performing a workout to lose 4 pounds a month means you’re trying to cut back 1000 calories daily. 

This is the safest weight loss plan that doesn’t disturb your overall health and you shouldn’t quit eating completely to achieve such a goal in your weight loss journey.

However, avoiding following your eating and exercise schedulers can be proven harmful for your beer belly decline. Here, diligence is key to success.

Always remember,don’t believe in fad diets or weight loss pills that promise rapid results. These products are not safe to use as they used to claim exaggeratedly. They may lead to dangerous health conditions that can cause serious health issues.

Best Ways to Camouflage a Beer Belly

The results of all efforts you make for getting rid of her belly appear after sometime. Therefore, sometimes when you need to hide your beer belly at once for a short time, you can camouflage it in simple ways. You can make your beer belly unnoticeable by making some lifestyle changes. Here are some quick tips for your convenience:

• Don’t tuck in your shirt.
• Wear a single color shirt or blouse.
• Prefer wearing loose clothing like button-up shirts and fluffy blouses as the tight clothes may accentuate the belly area.
• Wear high-rinse jeans instead of low-rinse jeans.
• Try dark colors fur shirts and pants and lighter color fur shirts and blouses. This can help make extra weight less noticeable and provides a more proportioned look.
• Wear vertical strips.
• Prefer tailored pants or simple pants that can help flatter your lower half. This will help camouflage your extra weight.

When to Consult a Doctor?

Having a beer belly itself is not a medical emergency. But it is an indication that your risk of developing some serious health conditions is increasing day by day. Excess weight gain is directly linked with certain diseases like:

• Joint problems.
• Heart disease.
• Digestive problems.
• Lactose intolerance.
• Type 2 diabetes.
• Blockage in your intestine.

Moreover, if the expansion of belly is accompanied by changes in your bowel habits or pain, visit your healthcare provider as soon as possible.

Conclusion

You surely want to get rid of your beer belly, but are also worried about completely giving up the flavors and taste of your favorite foods along with full shots of barley and hops. Fear not dear, because moderate consumption of beer cannot disturb your belly fat. You just need to make some lifestyle and diet changes while drinking alcohol to reduce your abdominal obesity.